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As thousands of migrants continue to make their way to the United States, and stricter immigration policies make legal entry increasingly difficult, a Mexican border center south of Arizona has become a crucial source of humanitarian aid to migrants. Veronica Villafañe narrates the story reported by Paula Díaz.

Two reports released this week sound the alarm about an increase in efforts to disrupt the U.S. presidential election. They say information manipulation, political violence and intimidation are on the rise. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.

Take a spin around the globe as we explore Chinatowns from New York to Los Angeles, Nairobi to Singapore, even in far flung cities like Lima and Kabul. See how these vibrant neighborhoods offer a taste of Chinese heritage and traditions while they add in a dash of local flavor.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

As Ukrainian forces continue their push deeper into Russia, questions are emerging on what Kyiv plans to do with the territory that Ukraine is capturing. Anna Chernikova reports from Kyiv.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Washington  — Landlocked between Russia and China, analysts say Mongolia is finding ways to balance its outreach to Western democratic nations without alarming it neighbors to the north or south. Although Mongolia regards China and Russia as its top foreign and economic priorities, with most of its trade transiting the two, it has also committed to deepening and developing relations with the United States, Japan, the European Union and other democracies, calling these countries its "third neighbors." Sean King, senior vice president of Park Strategies, a New York-based political consultancy, tells VOA, "They're smart to involve us as much as possible as a counterweight to Moscow and Beijing." United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded his latest trip to Asia earlier this month in Mongolia, where he emphasized the country is the United States’ "core partner" in the Indo-Pacific and that such partners are "reaching new levels every day." Blinken’s visit came after the two sides held their first comprehensive strategic dialogue in Washington. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was scheduled to visit Mongolia this week, but the trip was canceled as Japan braces for a rare major earthquake predicted for the coming week. Instead, the two sides spoke by phone on August 13. Leaders of democracies who visited Mongolia the past few months include German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo. French President Emmanuel Macron visited Mongolia for the first time last year. The State Department said that including Mongolia as one of two countries in Campbell's diplomatic debut "underscores the United States' strong commitment to freedom and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and beyond." Charles Krusekopf, founder and executive director of the American Center of Mongolian Studies, told VOA, "Being able to have some regional presence by having a close relationship with Mongolia, having a friend in the region, I think, is important to the United States."  The June 2019 edition of the U.S. Defense Department’s “Indo-Pacific Strategy Report” includes Mongolia, along with New Zealand, Taiwan and Singapore, in the camp of Indo-Pacific democracies, positioning them as "reliable, competent and natural partners." Despite its geographical location, which limits its diplomatic space to maneuver, Mongolia has managed to maintain close relations with all parties, from the U.S., China, and Russia to North and South Korea, making it an exception in complex geopolitics. At last month's Mongolia Forum, government officials and strategic experts from eight countries, including Britain, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, gathered in Ulaanbaatar to discuss the most pressing strategic issues in Asia today, including tensions on the Korean Peninsula. "It's one of the rare places in which people from all countries of the region can come together to meet, and it's considered kind of a neutral ground," Krusekopf tells VOA. Mongolia abstained from U.N. resolutions in 2022 and 2023 that condemned Moscow’s annexation of Ukrainian territory and demanded that Russian troops leave the country. Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh and Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai also met with Chinese leaders Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang, respectively, last year. Oyun-Erdene visited China just a month before his state visit to the U.S., where the two countries issued the U.S.-Mongolia Joint Statement on the Strategic Third Neighbor Partnership. Shortly before Blinken's visit this month, Mongolia held its annual military exercise called Khan Exploration, which, although it was a peacekeeping exercise, was attended not only by troops from the U.S. and Japan but also China. Krusekopf says with most of Mongolia’s foreign trade being mining exports through China, Beijing doesn’t feel a threat from Western security interests there. "Mongolia is friends with everyone in the region. It's never been a threat to other countries, and they're seen as a middle country. And it's a broker in that region," he said.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Wellington, New Zealand — Kim Dotcom, who is facing criminal charges relating to the defunct file-sharing website Megaupload, will be extradited to the United States from New Zealand, the New Zealand justice minister said on Thursday. German-born Dotcom, who has New Zealand residency, has been fighting extradition to the United States since 2012 following a FBI-ordered raid on his Auckland mansion. Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith signed an extradition order for Dotcom, a spokesperson for the Minister of Justice said “I considered all of the information carefully and have decided that Mr Dotcom should be surrendered to the U.S. to face trial,” Goldsmith said in a statement. “As is common practice, I have allowed Mr Dotcom a short period of time to consider and take advice on my decision. I will not, therefore, be commenting further at this stage.” In a post on social media website X on Tuesday, Dotcom said "the obedient US colony in the South Pacific just decided to extradite me for what users uploaded to Megaupload," in what appears to be a reference to the extradition order. Reuters could not immediately contact Dotcom for a response. U.S. authorities say Dotcom and three other Megaupload executives cost film studios and record companies more than $500 million by encouraging paying users to store and share copyrighted material, which generated more than $175 million in revenue for the website. The company's chief marketing officer Finn Batato and chief technical officer and co-founder Mathias Ortmann, both from Germany, along with a third executive, Dutch national Bram van der Kolk, were arrested with Dotcom in 2012. Ortmann and van der Kolk entered plea deals that saw them sentenced in 2023 to jail terms in New Zealand but allowed them to avoid extradition. Batato died in 2022 in New Zealand.

Beijing — Vietnam's top leader, To Lam, will make an official visit to China from Sunday until Aug. 20, Vietnamese government and Chinese state media said, cementing close ties between the Communist-run neighbors. On his first foreign trip since his appointment this month as general secretary of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party, Lam is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and other officials. Despite their economic and trade links, the two nations occasionally clash over boundaries in the energy-rich South China Sea, a key waterway claimed by Beijing almost in its entirety, despite overlapping claims by several nations. Lam's visit follows an invitation from Xi and his wife, Vietnam's government said in a statement on Thursday that confirmed an earlier Reuters report on the visit. China is Vietnam's largest trading partner, with two-way trade in the first seven months of this year rising 25% from a year earlier to $112 billion, Vietnamese customs data shows.

Tarawa, Kiribati — Kiribati's pro-China president retained his parliamentary seat in a landslide, according to the first results on Thursday of an election that hinged on worries about the cost of living, rising sea levels and closer ties with Beijing. Results posted by the Pacific nation's Ministry of Culture and Internal Affairs showed Taneti Maamau won his Onotoa seat with almost 83 percent of the vote. It was a thunderous endorsement that puts the 63-year-old in a strong position to extend his almost decade-long tenure in a separate vote later this year. Wednesday's election was seen in part as a referendum on Maamau's embrace of Beijing. Maamau ditched relations with Taiwan in 2019, betting that ties with the world's second-largest economy would help Kiribati meet ambitious 2036 development goals. The move provoked concern in the United States and its allies over China's diplomatic and military ambitions in the Pacific. Maamau's chief rival, opposition leader Tessie Lambourne, also won her seat Thursday, garnering more than 50 percent of the vote and avoiding a second-round runoff despite a tough race. Maamau this year sacked and effectively deported Lambourne's Australian-born partner, David Lambourne, then a high court judge. Parliament will return on September 13, when a new speaker and candidates for the presidential election are chosen. Kiribati's people will then go back to the polls in a separate vote to choose the president. 'It's a one-way street' Low-lying Kiribati faces a raft of economic and environmental challenges. The minimum wage is $0.99 and unemployment rates remain high. Ruth Cross Kwansing, a candidate for the South Tarawa region, said the Pacific nation faces high prices because imports must be shipped to Fiji before coming to Kiribati. "Without anything to export, it's a one-way street, which pushes up the price of containers and that's passed on to the cost of goods," she told AFP. Consumer prices rose more than 9% last year, according to official data. Water supplies were also dwindling, particularly with a drought expected in the coming months, Cross Kwansing said. Most people collect their water from a public water point but cannot access it every day, she said. Economic challenges aside, Kiribati is also threatened by rising sea levels that now regularly taint drinking water supplies. Groundwater in Kiribati is up to 2 meters deep and is easily contaminated by saltwater inundation, as well as human and livestock waste. Aid agency ChildFund surveyed 1,875 houses in 2021 and found 73% had water that was unsafe or likely unsafe to drink due to bacterial contamination. While desalination plants are expected to be built across the islands, it could be years before regular clean water is available to households. It is also unclear how the water will reach homes, Cross Kwansing said. With outer atolls already under threat from coastal erosion, Tinaai Kaboua, a travel agent based in the capital Tarawa, said overcrowding further exacerbates supply issues. "The cost of imported food is very high, but we manage. In Tarawa, some places have water contamination," she told AFP. "There is a water company that brings water from big water tanks that comes every second day. It's not really enough for things like cooking and drinking. "The main thing is we need more water tanks to help us."

Jakarta , Indonesia — When Indonesia marks its 79th Independence Day this Saturday, it will not only be showcasing its ambitious plans to build a new capital more than 1,200 kilometers from the crowded city of Jakarta, but new trackless train technology built by China. According to organizers, those who attend the celebrations in Nusantara on Saturday will be shuttled around on the country’s first autonomous rail transit, or ART. The trackless trains are just one way that Indonesia is looking to build a smart, green new capital at Nusantara by 2045. "Our target is to have 80% of land transportation use public transport to activate people’s mobility," said Silvia Halim, deputy of Facilities and Infrastructure at IKN Authority. IKN is the nickname of the new capital city, Ibu Kota Nusantara, or Capital City Nusantara. The trackless trains are also the latest sign of deepening collaboration between Indonesia and China, Indonesia's largest trading partner and second-largest investor. Indonesia’s Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi first proposed using Chinese autonomous trains at Nusantara during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Li Xiaopeng in Beijing last January. Earlier this month, Indonesia began testing the autonomous trains in Indonesia’s future capital. The trains will run for a trial period from Independence Day until December 31, 2024, Indonesian officials say. The self-driving ART system is a cross between a bus and a three- or five-car unit tram and can travel 25 kilometers after a 10-minute charge. The 32-meter-long trams run on electricity and have no overhead wires, no conventional tracks, and no driver. They are guided by dotted lines on the road and fitted with sensors that follow virtual rails that adapt to the train’s surroundings. The train sets at Nusantara were sent over from Qingdao, China, in July and will run on a 7-kilometer route at a maximum speed of 40-70 kph. The tram can carry up to 250 passengers. During a test run at Nusantara, President Joko Widodo compared the ART system and the escalating cost for Mass Rapid Transit and Light Rail Transit systems, telling a meeting of governors, mayors and regents the ART is cheaper and costs about $4.7 million per unit for three carriages. Indonesia has relied on China for its first high speed railway, replacing some of its commuter line trains and now the ART system. The use of autonomous trains also aligns with Indonesia’s plans for Nusantara to become a smart and green city. Transportation Minister Budi has said that in the future the autonomous train series will continue to operate at Nusantara. However, its operation will use a so-called buy the service, or BTS scheme. He has also invited the private sector to get involved in the project at Nusantara by purchasing the trains from China and allow the government to run the service. Budi has said that the establishment of trackless train system in Nusantara is partly a testing ground to expand for use across the country. It is also in line, he said, with the Indonesian government’s hopes to establish an efficient transit system that reduces emissions by 2045. However, Djoko Setijowarno, a transportation analyst, tells VOA, that replicating a trackless train system in other cities could be challenging as the government must decide whether an ART is regulated as a road vehicle or as a train. He added that authorities must also study how social behaviors on the road affect the safe use of an ART, particularly in traffic congested areas. "There are still many Indonesian cities that still do not have a good public transportation system. Many people must rely on private vehicles to go everywhere. I think we shouldn’t overburden the state budget with procuring fancy and expensive autonomous rail transit vehicles first, but rather build a Bus Rapid Transit system which is more affordable for regional governments," Djoko told VOA in an online interview. Trackless trains are not the only way that China is participating in Indonesia’s plans for its future capital. Since 2023, Shenzen City has been involved in the design planning with the Nusantara Capital Authority. According to Basuki Hadimuljono, the acting chief of the Nusantara Capital Authority, China is also planning to further invest in building housing, hotels and office buildings.

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol offered on Thursday to establish a working-level consultative body with North Korea to discuss ways to ease tension and resume economic cooperation, as he laid out his vision on unification of the neighbors. In a National Liberation Day speech marking the 79th anniversary of independence from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule after World War II, Yoon said he was ready to begin political and economic cooperation if North Korea "takes just one step" toward denuclearization. Yoon used the speech to unveil a blueprint for unification and make a fresh outreach to Pyongyang, following his government's recent offer to provide relief supplies for flood damage in the isolated North, which he said had been rejected. But a unified Korea appears a distant prospect with relations between the neighbors at the lowest point in decades as the North races to advance its nuclear and missile capabilities and takes steps to cut ties with the South, redefining it as a separate, hostile enemy state. At the start of the year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called South Korea a "primary foe" and said unification was no longer possible. Yoon said launching the "inter-Korean working group" could help relieve tensions and handle any issues ranging from economic cooperation to people-to-people exchanges to reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.   "Dialogue and cooperation can bring about substantive progress in inter-Korean relations," he said. His speech came amid a dispute with opposition lawmakers over Yoon's appointment of what they view as a pro-Japan, revisionist former professor to oversee a national independence museum, another sign of divisions and political polarization over Yoon's efforts to boost security ties with Tokyo. Major independence movement groups which had for decades co-hosted the annual National Liberation Day events with the government held a separate ceremony for the first time in protest, joined by opposition lawmakers. Yoon's office has said there were "misunderstandings" about the appointment and was seeking ways to resolve them. Conference on human rights Yoon, in the speech, also raised the idea of launching an international conference on North Korea's human rights and a fund to promote global awareness on the issue, support activist groups, and expand North Koreans' access to outside information. "If more North Koreans come to recognize that unification through freedom is the only way to improve their lives and are convinced that a unified Republic of Korea will embrace them, they will become strong, friendly forces for a freedom-based unification," he said. Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean studies in Seoul, said the North could take Seoul's plans to promote human rights and outside information while offering aid and talks as contradictory and a threat to Kim's regime. "Those plans look good on the surface, but from Pyongyang's perspective, they are nothing but programs that could contribute to overthrowing the regime," Yang said. This year's speech marked a departure from Yoon's focus on Japan during past anniversaries, even as at least three Japanese cabinet ministers visited the controversial Yasukuni shrine which Seoul calls a symbol of the country's wartime aggression. Seoul's foreign ministry expressed deep disappointment over the visit, urging Tokyo to "face history and demonstrate humble reflection and genuine introspection on the past." The main opposition Democratic Party issued a statement denouncing Yoon's speech as a plot to consolidate his "pro-Japan, ultra-right forces" and instigate war with North Korea. Yoon's office defended the speech, saying it showed Seoul's confidence by seeking cooperation with Tokyo while raising thorny historical issues, as well as laying groundwork for future North Korean unification even without Pyongyang's help. "We cannot be optimistic about when and how they (the North Koreans) will respond," an official told reporters, while noting that a working-level consultative body would not suddenly require leaders to meet and shake hands without substantive progress.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

SINGAPORE — A Singapore court on Thursday charged two former bankers for helping a group of foreigners who were convicted of laundering $2.2 billion last year in the biggest such financial crime in the Asian financial hub. Both Wang Qiming and Liu Kai were relationship managers and Chinese nationals employed by Citibank and Swiss private bank Julius Baer, according to a Singapore Police Force statement and the court documents. Wang, 26, faces 10 charges, including laundering almost $380,000 and forging loan documents. Liu, 35, was charged with using a forged Chinese tax document to help one of the convicted money launderers open a Julius Baer bank account in Switzerland, the court documents showed. Julius Baer and the lawyers of the two men did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement, Citibank said: "The individual in question has not been in our employ since April 2022. We do not comment on matters that are before the courts." Last August, authorities conducted simultaneous raids and arrested 10 foreigners holding multiple passports in a case that captivated the city-state because of the staggeringly large amount of money, cars, luxury goods and properties involved. The 10 convicted money launderers were sentenced to jail terms of between 13 and 17 months and were deported and barred from re-entering Singapore after completing their sentences. The case has prompted reforms that include making it easier to prosecute money laundering cases. Authorities have also set up an inter-ministerial panel to review the anti-money laundering process and inspect financial institutions suspected of involvement. In June, the government said Singapore's banking sector poses the highest money laundering risk in the city-state.